This is the ‘rough sketch’ (20s) of my film.
Monthly Archives: October 2016
Foundation 4D Proj. 3: ‘DISREGARD’ process
These words outline the main idea for my film:
This will follow the behaviour of humans while they eat and relate it to the concept of desiring experiences. What do people think of when they eat? Do they get irritated when they’re bothered? Perhaps they insist on solely, themselves, living in the moment, disregarding and blocking out the intrusions. Yet, they do not realise what happens to the food they enjoyed in the moment – forgetting what time brings to the indulgence.
I wanted to focus on people eating, so at first I filmed people at hawkers as I walked past, and just people eating in general.
But since I wanted to include what happened to food after the indulgence and after the consummation, I needed to grow mould. Or at least, show what happens to food in the events afterwards (ones that we don’t give much thought to).
I intended to use food moulding (like my Project 2) but to do that, I would need to use found videos as I do not possess the right cameras or resources to be able to do such a long timelapse – over a couple of days – for food to mould.
So, I had to think of an alternative to growing mould – I think the process of washing food off of dishes and throwing it into waste bins is similar.
4D Project 2 – Process Update
To pursue the notion of rot and moulding in food (as symbols), I decided to make my own food grow mould and rot. At first, I wanted to try moulding fruit (more specifically, an apple) by cutting into it a design so that the mould would grow through the skin, like so: 
However, I read online later on that apples, out of all the fruit that mould, would form mould the slowest – this would not give me enough time to take good photos before the project’s 30+ images were due. So, I decided to throw away the apple and then use another food item that would mould quickly: bread.
The conditions for growing mould on bread are:
- Moisten the bread
- Let it catch the spores from the air (that will start moulding eventually)
- Put it inside a plastic bag so the spores do not cause illness (to me) and the mould can grow and be observed easily.
- Put it inside a dark area, as most mould doesn’t grow in sunlight.
Disappointingly, even though I had read online that mould would take 2-3 days to grow, by the 4th day I had seen no signs of any growth and I was about ready to give up and use online images of mould. But then, on the 5th day, the first sign of growth was spotted on the bread and I just carried on from there.
The problem still though, was that I didn’t want to just have a sequence of pictures of a singular slice of bread moulding; I wanted it to have a connection to my idea of food as human nature, as a memory.
So, Robert gave me the idea of showing the beginning, that is, right before one is about to consume the food, where the excitement and the energy is highest and where the thought of what happens to the food afterwards is far, far away from one’s mind. And then, showing the end. Which would be the bread as it becomes mouldier and mouldier. I decided there and then that I would pair up the photos – pictures of a meal about to be eaten with scans of the mould on the bread.
The older the picture, the more mouldy the bread would be.
2D Project 2 – Forrest Gump Compositions (final)
These are my final compositions for this project. Each goes with a quote from Princess Mononoke (1997).
ONE
In this composition, I wanted to contrast the ideas of being ‘tame’ and being ‘wild’. Wolves in general are uncontrollable, wild beasts, but with this quote, it was about the wolf’s head and the power the wolf has, even in death. So the rest of the body of the wolf is within the confines of the circle (aesthetically ‘taming’ him), while his head sticks out, suggesting the notion of pushing the boundaries and refusing to stay within the constraints. I also included a deer because they are symbolic of prey animals – it adds the feeling of a threat to the deer on the wolf’s behalf. The lines pierce through the deer to emphasise this threat; I think the use of two subjects is interesting.
Movement was a prominent principle of design in this piece as I wanted to show the left to right movement of the wolf and carry the eye across the piece, to view the wolf and then the deer. And so, the balance of the piece also weighs more on the right side. There is also emphasis on the wolf and the deer as the most of the design comprises of thin linework, as opposed to block-y pattens that are on both the subjects.
TWO
I think crows are symbolic of a lot of bitterness and hatred. Combining them with storm-clouds and lightning encompasses the intensity that exists in an emotion like hatred. The quote says to see with eyes unclouded by hate. In the context of the film, this was said as though “seeing without hatred” was a goal of the protagonist. However, I thought it would be interesting to portray someone still seeing with eyes literally clouded (hence, the storm-clouds) by darkness and hate still. The constellation-type things are there to show the complicated nature of this quote; easier said than done.
Unity is quite prominent in this piece as most of the work is dark toned, so the piece harmonises in value. Repetition is created with the mass shapes of the crows that make this artwork seem active, to express the fact that hate is an active emotion that moves and breathes.
THREE
I think fate is as vast as mountains and as unexplored as the universe. And I think, like koi fish swimming downstream, we all tend to have no other choice but to go with the flow (which is downstream) and accept our fate. The notion of rising and meeting fate is a scary and dark space. Rising to meet fate is something that takes time, and I wanted to show that by angling the largest fish more to the side (to imply that it might perhaps stray from the movement of downstream swimming like the other two fish and go in another direction, like meeting its fate).
The principle of design that is most strongly used here is the feeling of emphasis, which is executed by using central composition as well as the values – contrasting between black and white. The koi fish all stand out, but are also balanced by downsizing the other two fish that make it more interesting, but not too repetitive and dull. There is also movement down to the bottom right corner of the artwork. The lines of movement contrast as the fish move down while the mountain moves up. The stark contrast and emphasis is complimented by the pattern of the stars, which delivers another element of balance and stability.
This is the design I used for my tote bag.
FOUR
I personally really love this composition. The quote is a side character talking to the protagonist, and I think it tells a lot about how each of us are in our own little worlds, obsessed with our own predicaments. We centralise ourselves, like the subject above – blind to anyone but their own thoughts. However, the world looms (also suggested by the fact that it extends out of the frame of the composition), it still exists even if we shut it out. The constellations in the background also imply a larger universe beyond, but the central figure (outlined in white) represents us, and how we make ourselves literally, the centre of the universe.
By having a centralised composition but with the placement of the earth at the side, there is a diagonal pull from the bottom left corner to the upper right, making one see the human figure first and then realising the world is there – which, in effect, is very visually explanatory of the quote itself. The rhythm of the stars in the background add visual interest and the emphasis (by using the white outline) is on the figure and on the earth as well.
2D – “Forrest Gump” Project: Process Post
I have thoroughly enjoyed Project 2 so far. From being able to have the freedom to take quotes from movies we want to designing our own interpretations of those quotes, this project has been really fun and interesting – I’ve learnt new things in the process as well.
The process of silkscreen printing is something that I haven’t done before and I thought it was really fascinating,
Last week we coated our silkscreens with emulsion and left them to dry, taking care not to let white light hit the emulsion (or it would become exposed).
Then we exposed the screen’s emulsion layer by putting our transparency on top of it and putting it in the machine below:
Afterwards, we cleaned off the area of the emulsion that was exposed using a water gun. Slowly but surely, our designs emerged as we continued barrelling water at the screens.
In the end, my screen looked like this, where all of the emulsion washed off in the areas that were exposed to the light. Then it was left to dry (it no longer needed to be protected from white light).
It was such an interesting experience. This week (the lesson after the one above), I finally tried silkscreen printing.
The screen went from brilliantly blue to stained with black, but that was all part of the process of printing out the ink onto a surface, which you can see below:
In addition to printing on a tote bag, I also brought my own shirt along to try on out other fabric and I think it turned out well!! This was an overall very educational and enjoyable assignment and it has piqued my interest in silkscreen printing.
4D – Project 2
A teacher of mine (she taught literature) once told me that all literature is either about food, sex, or death. Thinking about it, I think it makes perfect sense about us as humans.
My first project focused on the nature of time and what it does to a moment as it transitions to a memory, questioning what is left behind after loss.
I want to explore further, and rather look into the nature of humans as we are, in relation to time. I kept thinking though, about how I wanted to show this in a series of photos, and then I remembered what my teacher had said above.
And as I was looking through possible images and ideas online, I came across this account called Two Red Bowls on flickr.
Despite being an account that obviously appreciates food photography in all its beauty, it was the images of the empty bowls and plates (after everything had been consumed) that got me thinking about human nature.
I think food and consumption is a very good representation of our hunger for things: for money, for a lover, or for anything in between. We eat and eat, chew continuously, some of us with less awareness of our limits than others. But in the end, we are left with some pieces. A grain of rice here, a smudge of sauce there. What we do with the leftovers (after we experience the moment) relates to what my first project was about. The leftovers are either washed away (forgotten and cleaned) or left to rot and mold. I think this accurately symbolises the notions of bitterness and grudges, of a memory turning foul because of the refusal to let it go. I want to express this with my project.
2D Project 2 – Princess Mononoke Quotes
My all-time favourite movie is Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke. The animation is beautiful, the message is powerful, and I just can’t breathe when I watch the film. I wanted to use quotes from this movie because I think they’re particularly significant to the nature of man. And also because I love the way they sound.
- “Cut off a wolf’s head and it still has the power to bite.”
- “To see with eyes unclouded by hate.”
- “You cannot change fate. However, you can rise to meet it, if you so choose.”
- “So you say you’re under a curse? So what? So’s the whole damn world.”
The Sovereign Forest – An Exhibition Review
The moment I stepped into Amar Kanwar’s The Sovereign Forest, I was bewildered, to say the least. The darkness of the room threw my senses into disarray as I tried to put together what I was experiencing. The first thing I was greeted with was The Scene of Crime (2011), which is a series of installation views that show the landscape of Odisha, east India; the area which Kanwar’s exhibition focuses on. The installation showed sequences of beautiful scenes – aesthetically pleasing, but did not leave that much of a strong impression (of course, I didn’t know the purpose of the exhibition, yet).
However, as I walked around in the darkness, things became clearer to me – both physically and mentally, as my eyes adjusted to the darkness and my mind started to understand what Kanwar’s message was. What I began to realise was that The Sovereign Forest was a commentary on feuds between government and the people, presenting stories of struggle surrounding industrial interventions and the issue of land ownership for the sake of materials like aluminium and bauxite.
The political aspects served as the context for the mounted rows of newspaper clippings and documents, the installation views (both The Scene of Crime and Love Story), and the books Kanwar has presented. He makes use of moving images and sequences coupled with writing and text, putting together two different story-telling ‘mediums’ (if you will) to weave together the intricate – and violent – conflicts of the local communities, government, and corporations. Often, when I think about stories and art together, I believe that the more naturally intricate and complicated a story is, the higher chance it will have of staying in my memory. The more thinking and effort the viewer has to put in to understand the work, the more memorable it will be – in my own opinion. And as a result, Kanwar has ingrained the name “Odisha” into my mind.
The Sovereign Forest allowed me to consider what it meant to truly tell a story. Despite the weighted reality of a violent humanity and the mixed dilemmas of environmental problems and displacement of the locals, I wanted to really question what it was that made the story such an important one for the viewer. Why do I remember the content of the stories told?
Indeed, the entire time I was within the darkness of Kanwar’s works, I was immersed. There aren’t really any other words to describe it. Even amongst the other people roaming the room, my senses were automatically tuned into the lighted books and displays. The words of those passed still float in my head. I still think of Nidhan’s comparison of cutting to the conflicts of the land.
A good story is a gripping story – where your world disappears and you sink into the thoughts of the storyteller. My own Foundation 4D explorations centre a lot around the concept of memory and the metaphysical condition of the mind ‘losing’ something. Kanwar’s exhibition largely revolves around the notion of what was before, leaving the viewer open to think about the destruction that followed the industrial activities of Odisha. The Sovereign Forest is also very much about what was lost. From the lists of farmers who have committed suicide to the people who have died for the purpose of what they believed in; Kanwar’s works all echo the same element of human experiences – the effect of time. The layers of text, videos, photography, seeds, and other such elements suggest what was, what is, and what will come. In effect, the essence of a story.
